Requirements for Trade Union Organizations in Protecting Workers' Rights in Vietnam Today

effective. The activities have not yet fully reflected the rights and responsibilities that the State has given to the trade union organization. Therefore, when the regulations were issued, both the trade union and the employees were passive, and the rights and interests of the employees were not effectively protected.

In addition, the pressure of population growth and unemployment of working-age workers has been and is being concerned by the whole society. According to the General Statistics Office, in the first 6 months of 2013, the general unemployment rate of the whole country was 2.28%. Previously, in 2012, the unemployment rate was only 1.99%, down from 2.8% and 2.2% in 2010 and 2011. A number of recent strikes have demonstrated that the weaknesses of some trade unions - both trade unions in state-owned and non-state-owned enterprises - have not been overcome. That is: Trade unions do not grasp the aspirations and concerns of workers, or they know but do not actively participate in solving them with expertise... These weaknesses not only damage the rights of workers but also affect the reputation of trade unions. The cause of strikes is still the violation of workers' rights. Workers have to work overtime, but their income does not increase. Overtime wages and holiday wages are arbitrarily imposed by the company without any agreement with the workers, showing the lack of responsibility of the trade union organization.

On April 5, 2013, the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor held a workshop to evaluate the activities of trade unions in implementing the Civil Procedure Code and other legal provisions on labor dispute settlement. According to the report of the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor, since the Labor Code took effect (from 1995 to the end of 2012), there have been 4,922 strikes nationwide, of which: State-owned enterprises had 100 strikes; foreign-invested enterprises had more than 3,500 strikes; and private enterprises had nearly 1,300 strikes. If we count the 5 years from 2008 to 2012 alone, there were more than 3,000 specific disputes and strikes nationwide in 29 provinces and cities. The year 2011 saw the most strikes with nearly 1,000 strikes.

1,000 cases. Strikes mainly occurred in key southern provinces and cities such as Ho Chi Minh City, Binh Duong, Dong Nai, where many workers were concentrated. In the years 2008 - 2010, strikes mainly occurred in the first months of the year (before and after the Lunar New Year) with demands for Tet bonuses and annual leave payments. Most of the strikes were spontaneous, not organized or led by the Trade Union, not following the prescribed legal procedures, and tended to spread from one enterprise to another. Strikes occurred most frequently in textile, footwear, seafood processing, wood processing, and electronics assembly enterprises, which were invested by Korean, Taiwanese, Japanese, and Hong Kong enterprises, which were labor-intensive enterprises. In the years 2008 - 2010, strikes were mainly about rights, but in 2011 - 2012, strikes about benefits occurred more often. The main reason was the economic recession leading to difficulties for enterprises and lack of jobs. The high inflation caused workers' wages to increase but not keep up with market prices, not ensuring the lives of workers. Therefore, the main reason for strikes in 2008 - 2012 was that workers demanded increases in wages, bonuses, allowances, lunch money, and welfare benefits. In addition, there were a number of other reasons such as enterprises requiring workers to work overtime beyond the regulations, continuous overtime, unsafe working conditions, poor quality of lunch, enterprises avoiding paying social insurance and health insurance for workers, enterprises not signing contracts with workers, etc. Harsh management and brutal treatment of workers by employers were also causes of strikes. Most collective labor disputes and strikes are mediated at the facility, in the export processing zone, and industrial park. Since its establishment in 1999, the Labor Arbitration Council in provinces and cities has only been able to resolve a small number of collective labor and interest disputes. The 2002 strike at Pouchen Company (HCMC) involving nearly 50,000 workers

has caused a big impact and the Prime Minister has issued an urgent decision on salary adjustment. In fact, there has not been any lawsuit to request the legality of the strike to be considered by the labor court of the trade union at all levels, because 100% of the strikes were not initiated and led by the trade union. There is only one collective labor dispute case of the Long Khanh Town Labor Federation (Dong Nai) suing Hanul Line Company regarding the social insurance regime as the plaintiff in the collective labor dispute lawsuit.

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Some specific reasons leading to the limitations in the role of trade unions in recent times can be pointed out as follows:

Firstly, the union cadre team still has many shortcomings: Cadres are the root of the movement, the driving force, the locomotive pulling all activities of the trade union, but currently there are many problems such as:

The majority of union officials holding concurrent positions at the grassroots level are competent professionals who hold management positions at the grassroots level, so they are very busy with their professional work and have little time to take care of union work. According to the Labor Code, Article 155 stipulates that the minimum time for union activities in a month is 3 days. The number of days of activities increases in large establishments, depending on the agreement between the Executive Board and the employer, but no establishment is interested in doing this well. The employer has not created favorable conditions regarding time for the union, and the union Executive Board has not clarified this issue with the employer.

Some union officials do not know the job, are not proficient in union work, but do not have time to study and research documents, so they cannot promptly carry out tasks, do not grasp information, cannot explain policies to union members and employees, and cannot organize and carry out union tasks. Union members gradually distance themselves from the organization, or because their interests are tied to the enterprise, they have not been properly trained in their profession, and lack legal knowledge, so their ability to fight and protect the interests of employees is limited.

Limited union cadres. There are some union cadres who look down on their own organization but still participate in the Executive Committee to gain status and benefits, but are not active in activities, and cover up for whatever the wind blows. When union members ask for help, they do not dare to reflect union members' opinions. When they reflect, they do not know how to protect union members, putting union members in a position where the employer will suppress them.

The situation of changing key cadres of the grassroots trade union also occurs frequently in grassroots trade unions in the non-state sector because union cadres are also employees who sign labor contracts, so when the contract expires or the contract is terminated to find a new job, it greatly affects the activities of the grassroots trade union, making the activities of the grassroots trade union discontinuous and unsystematic because they do not pay attention to perfecting the organization and handing over the work. In some places, the number of cadres is small and cannot meet the work requirements. In some places, there are too many (many union groups), so there are no allowances or very few allowances for cadres, which also reduces enthusiasm.

Second, the shortcomings in the activities of the Executive Committee: The Executive Committee is the leading body of the Trade Union but is given little attention in organizing activities; some Executive Committees lack operating regulations and resolutions on work assignment, leading to the work of the Executive Committee's leadership falling into the hands of the Trade Union Chairman, turning the Trade Union Chairman into a leader who solves all problems according to his own personal interests. In the activities of the Executive Committee, the principle of democratic centralism is not followed, the minority obeys the majority, the collective leadership, and the individual is in charge.

Many Executive Committees assign tasks to members unclearly, with overlapping tasks. Executive Committee members have not been proactive in advising, organizing and implementing tasks, and coordinating with other members and departments. When there is a vacancy in the Executive Committee due to job transfer or retirement, replacements have not been promptly provided to meet work requirements. Committee members receive little or no training, so they do not know the job or are not proficient in the job.

The Executive Committee's activities are not regular, resolutions are not recorded in the resolution book to monitor task implementation, and there is no attention paid to criticism, reminders, and general assessment and experience drawing.

Third, the financial work and working conditions of the trade union are still weak : The trade union does not have a stable and strong financial source. The trade union's finances include money transferred by employers to the trade union according to government regulations and union dues from union members. Employers in many enterprises have not transferred or have not transferred in time and in full according to regulations to the grassroots trade union to perform their tasks. Some enterprises have not transferred money to the grassroots level but have found ways to control the trade union's expenditure items such as requesting expenditures on holidays, Tet, and expenses for organizing lucky draws, etc.

Many grassroots unions have not collected union dues correctly and sufficiently. Some grassroots unions, if they collect correctly and sufficiently according to the regulations of the General Confederation, do not have union members participating... Some grassroots unions have not collected enough but have set aside funds to help workers according to the general system of the specialized agencies of the corporation... The total budget for union activities is small and not timely, the spending is not according to the requirements of the grassroots unions and union members but is controlled by the employer for gifts, holidays, sightseeing, sports, entertainment and lucky draws, which is not entirely correct. Very few grassroots unions spend money on propaganda for union members and training union officials. If there is any, the percentage of budget for these items is very low.

There are almost no facilities for the grassroots trade union such as: no office, no telephone, no filing cabinet, etc. for the trade union, so the Executive Committee of the grassroots trade union does not have the conditions to welcome union members and workers to express their thoughts and aspirations. Even the certificates of merit and emulation flags of the grassroots trade union have no place to hang (because the factory is owned by the employer). The storage of books and documents, creating the tradition and system of the grassroots trade union is therefore very limited.

In addition, the Provincial Federation of Labor only collects taxes.

The grassroots trade union; the direct superior trade union has the task of guiding, inspecting... many times "he does not, she redeems" making it difficult for the base without being able to unify actions, not grasping and resolving issues in a timely manner. Not collecting or losing a large amount of financial revenue, or only caring about collecting without influencing the employer to contribute to the grassroots trade union.

Fourth, propaganda work is still limited: Propaganda work at the grassroots trade union focuses on organizing cultural, sports, entertainment, and tourism activities, paying little attention to disseminating laws, cultural knowledge, and understanding of trade union organizations for union members, rights and responsibilities... From there, it is easy to see that the union focuses on demanding rights, paying little attention to responsibilities, and is not aware of solidarity and unity to create strength; propaganda and dissemination of legal documents on labor have been implemented but are still inconsistent and not widespread. Most employees in enterprises do not clearly understand the provisions of labor laws related to their rights, so they cannot proactively protect their rights when the business owner violates them.

Fifth, the weakness in inspection work: In order to achieve good results, in addition to proactive planning and implementation, attention must also be paid to doing a good job of inspection. The Trade Union Inspection Committee has a small number of staff (from 1-3 people), and they are not proficient in their work. When meeting, the Executive Committees often forget to invite members of the Inspection Committee to attend the meeting (according to the regulations guiding the implementation of the Vietnam Trade Union Charter). The weak inspection work is primarily due to the fact that the Trade Union Inspection Committee has not paid attention and has not created favorable conditions such as inviting meetings with the Executive Committee, creating favorable conditions for attending training courses to improve professional skills. At the Trade Union, it is difficult for the Chairman to attend meetings and courses, not to mention the members of the Inspection Committee. Peer-to-peer inspections are not carried out periodically, and the quality of the inspections is low, so they cannot point out shortcomings in trade union activities. Even the Inspection Committee of the trade union at the grassroots level also has similar shortcomings, so it cannot help the Trade Union Inspection Committee much.

Sixth, the management direction of the superior union is not timely: The staff of the grassroots union is part-time, has a labor contract, and depends on the labor contract but has to do a lot of union tasks, has to propagate and organize many activities according to the requirements of the superior and meets the requirements and wishes of union members. If they do all the work assigned by the superior union, they will not have time for professional activities.

The upper-level unions have little opportunity to closely monitor the grassroots and do not promptly resolve difficulties for the grassroots. Information is only available from the top down, with very little information coming from the grassroots unions. Many good deeds at the grassroots unions are not promptly reported, and advanced examples are not widely replicated.

Chapter 3

SOME RECOMMENDATIONS TO IMPROVE THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE ROLE OF TRADE UNIONS IN PROTECTING WORKERS' RIGHTS IN VIETNAM TODAY

3.1. Requirements for trade unions in protecting workers' rights in Vietnam today

3.1.1. Trade unions must truly perform their function of protecting workers.

Nowadays, labor relations are mainly governed and regulated by the laws of the market economy such as the law of value, the law of price and the law of supply and demand. The subjects in this relationship are those who need to use labor and those who need to sell labor. The process of buying and selling labor goods has formed a complex relationship between the employer and the employee.

The more developed the economy is, the more intense the conflict of interests between employers and workers becomes. How to harmonize the employer-worker relationship is a requirement for each level and each union official. At the same time, it is also necessary to ensure the objective laws of the market economy, helping enterprises develop in the right direction and achieve production and business efficiency. In the current period, the union must focus on its main function of protecting the legitimate rights and interests of employees. If it performs this function and task well, it will change the attitude of employees towards the union organization. The union, as an arbitrator and a direct supervisor, through its activities, contributes to creating a harmonious and lawful labor relationship.

The trade union is an organization directly connected with workers, where workers confide and share their thoughts and aspirations. Therefore, the trade union must truly represent and protect the rights of workers, and must take

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